One of the interesting aspects of Reykjavik is the plethora of public art in the city, both official and unofficial.

I'll deal with the former in a future post, but I thought I'd show some of the latter images we saw during our trip. All were from the "101" district in the core. The second image was constructed with what looked like sequins to produce the "mountain top". In a light breeze, the top shimmered, a very nice effect (there was a second piece about a block away from that one, which I presume was done by the same artist).

The top of the mountain is constructed of a series of sequins. I was looking at some Flipboard sites tonight and found an article on the artist -- see "Shimmering Sequins Street Art". 

Seen on the Streets

While out and about, we saw the following shops that we thought were suitable for photos:

"Bad Taste" was a small CD shop (about the size of a small one bedroom apartment, with an impressive selection of local and international acts. We spent a little time in the store on our final day in Reykjavik, getting the shopkeepers advice on who was doing interesting things in Iceland. Ended up with a couple of CDs by "Sin Fang" ("Summer Echoes") and "Rökkurró" ("i annan heim").

Of the two, I prefer the former. It's very reminiscent of some of Bill Nelson's early solo work, especially the first track "Easier". The Rökkurró CD is pretty, but a little too ethereal.

Continuing in a somewhat musical vein, we ended up in another church (Frikirkjan) later in the week. It was quite a bit simpler and smaller than the Hallgrimskirkja, but did have a fairly impressive pipe organ for the size and was also the venue where Sigur Ros burst onto the scene at the 2000 Airwaves festival. Met an incredibly friendly woman there who told us all about the church and much more besides.

Random Notes -- The Icelandic Diet

Generally, we were able to eat fairly well while we were in Iceland, although meals out tended to be a relatively pricey option. 


It was difficult to find restaurant meals that didn't set us back $70 or $80 or more, even without the addition of beer or wine or any other "extras". The most economical places tended to be vegetarian places (and, as it turned out, they also featured some of the best food). Beyond that, there were ubiquitous fast-food places, with pizza at the top of this section of the food chain and descending rapidly into places like Taco Bell or KFC (to their credit, though, they seemed to have been able to prevent McDonald's from gaining a foothold).


Besides fish, lamb was the big item on the Icelandic menu. Comfort food for them was a hearty soup made with lamb that was quite delicious. A hamburger was also a fairly common item on the menu. Here's a shot of burger and fries that we had at one restaurant, just like home except that 1) it's an open-face sandwich, 2) the meat is lamb shank and 3) the fries are root vegetables. It was excellent! 

As far as fish restaurants go, there were a number of higher-end restaurants available, but we were told we should pay a visit to the Saegreifinn ("Sea Baron"). A variety of fishes (and minke whale as well) is available as kebabs -- you indicate what you want from a cooler and they grill it on the spot. Drinks are available in another cooler and you sit at roughly hewn benches, sitting on barrels. It was simple to extreme and was worth the visit.

Inside of the Sea Baron

Seating fit for a Sea Baron

One thing we quickly got used to was the Icelandic propensity for sugary drinks and desserts. 


Iceland is apparently the world's largest per-capita consumer of Coca-Cola. Grocery stores devoted lots of shelf space to soft drinks and a plethora of chocolate bars and other candies.

In restaurants, desserts usually featured creamy cakes accessorized with mounds of whipped cream and chocolate sauce. We learned very quickly to add a request to pass on the cream and sauce. That way, madness and Type 2 diabetes lay. 


On the plus side, there were a number of excellent coffee places near the hotel. Prices were slightly higher than Toronto and the quality was consistently good. Coffee would be a fairly expensive habit in Reykjavik, though. I saw ground coffee in one shop for 1500 krona for 250g, or about $30 a pound. 

Crossing Continents

During our last couple of days, we went out on a mini-road trip of our own, renting a car and heading out of town. 


The hotel recommended a rental company called Atak, which had a variety of vehicles available for rent; everything from Suzuki Altos (very similar to a Toyota Yaris) up to large 4x4s.  Many of the vehicles had manual transmission and, as I'd never driven a "stick", we went with an automatic. Off we went in a Suzuki Swift, GPS at the ready and looking for adventure.

The first trip was to the south-west area of the island, passing through a number of small villages before heading deep into the lava fields south of the Kevlavik airport. 

Dry dock

Lighthouse? 

Heading South

Although it was sunny, the temperature was only a degree or two above zero. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a cool day. At the same time, we were greeted by some of the strongest winds I'd ever experienced. 

Opening the door of our rental car was an effort if we tried to open it against the wind. As we soon discovered, trying to open the door when the window was coming from behind the vehicle was dangerous. Without a firm grip on the handle, the door would fly open as far as the hinge would allow.

The territory south of Kevlavik is quite unreal, resembling photos from the surface of the moon or Mars. Black ash covers a lot of the ground and the wind can create thick ash storms. 

In the middle of this territory is the "Bridge Between Two Continents", a metal bridge spanning the rift between the American and European tectonic plates. In addition, the rift is slowly pulling apart and Iceland is growing at a rate of about 2.5 cm per year.

The Bridge Between Continents 

Midpoint of the bridge

Rock Formation near the Bridge

Walking on the Moon (Icelandic version)

Rock Formation (detail) 

Area around the Bridge

Close to this area is a massive geothermal plant, making this even more of a science-fiction landscape. In addition, there are markers around the area which show the distance to each of the planets in the solar system. Not sure why they were put there (perhaps another example of the Icelandic sense of humour) and I have yet to come up with anything through Google.

The Mars Marker (one of a series)

We ended up at the southern port town of Grindavik before heading back in the rapidly advancing twilight. Grindavik is sheltered by a pair of mountains to the north. The valley in which it is situated is fertile compared to the area around the bridge. In the twilight, we passed a set of greenhouses, glowing with a warm yellow light in the approaching darkness. 

Imagine Peace

Reykjavik is home to an annual celebration of peace that was initiated by Yoko Ono. Coinciding with two major milestones in John Lennon's life -- the dates of his birth (Oct 9) and his death (Dec 8), the celebration is principally a focused set of spotlights on the nearby island of Viðey, which creates a tower of light visible for miles around. 

Imagine Peace tower from Viking Ship sculpture, Reykjavik 

There are other smaller scale recognitions of the project, mostly taking the form of paper wishing trees in galleries and shops (a wish tree is a metal skeleton festooned with small White squares of paper, upon which people write a wish for the future). You can see a photo stream of the wish trees associated with Imagine Peace here. 

Ono also played the Airwaves festival with the 2011 edition of the Plastic Ono Band. Her son, Sean Lennon, also played with his band, The Ghost of a Sabre-Tooth Tiger. 

Brennivin

[A note from the management: I spent some time on the trip back to Toronto creating a number of blog entries, which will appear over the next day or so. Also added a bunch of photos to some of the previous blog entries for embellishment and which had the unintended consequence of scrambling the early order a bit (a blog on "shuffle")].

The national beverage of Iceland is called Brennivin. The Wikipedia article makes a somewhat charming reference to its "dubious reputation"; on its label it refers to its appearance as one of the first liquours to be available after the repeal of Prohibition in Iceland in 1935. The product was released in a green bottle with a very plain black label, apparently to make it unattractive to consumers. Unfortunately it had the opposite effect and became quite popular. 

Brennivin is known affectionately as "black death" (svarti dauði in Icelandic) and has a taste not unlike schnapps, although there is a strong taste of caraway seeds and other herbs. Best drunk cold or as a chaser with beer or following a type of prepared shark meat called hákarl, it's definitely an acquired taste.

2008

Invariably, conversations with the locals end up with some discussion about how things have changed since the financial collapse in Iceland in 2008. Everyone we talked to was affected in some direct way by the collapse. Some had their wages cut as a result; many were saddled with having to deal with mortgages based on pre-2008 prices against properties that were suddenly worth a fraction of that amount.

"2008" exists in time for Icelanders like the Mid-Atlantic Rift exists in the terrain of their island -- there is a clear gap between then and now or there and here. At the same time, there is clearly affluence in Reykjavik that can not solely be explained by the arrival of visitors from abroad. We've been trying to figure out what this is based upon, but have not yet found the answer.

As a final comment, it makes the continuing story of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and their sibling movements in other locations pale by comparison. The protestors at the various "Occupy" events have their reasons for being there, but the reality of the Iceland situation is more keenly felt (and continues to be felt) here.